Hot Hot Hot

Got over an inch of rain on Saturday (with no power outages, thankfully). Started raining again at 6pm on Sunday. Got an inch and a quarter in less than an hour, then another two inches in the next few hours before drying up. Haven't had rain like that in years. Take that! you stupid drought.

There was a bit on the news showing a guy going down the street on a surfboard. Yeah, I would call that flooding.

The unusual part of getting weather statistics here is the different weather in different parts of town. In one place, they recorded 1.7 inches of rain; in another, they showed 2.25 inches; and out here where I am, they showed 3.25 inches. This is all within the city limits of a town with 30,000 population. The elevation varies by over 1,000 feet within the city. I am one of the few who ever gets snow.

Monday was a pleasant day, then the rain began again on Tuesday. Got about three-quarters of an inch during the day, and then another two-and-a-quarter inches last night. Serious wind as well, which gave us several hours without electricity. The ground was already saturated, so this stuff is just running off; it sounds like a small stream.

Even under normal conditions, this is an unusually large amount of rain for January, and we have twenty days left in the month. I think we have already had a normal year's rainfall and there are two more months that normally produce significant rain.

It was just announced that 2016 was the hottest year on record, globally - surpassing the previous records of 2015 and 2014. But the idiots will claim that if it gets cold in one place for a short period, then climate change is a hoax. I don't know if that is worse than those who think that a little more warm weather is good. Or that CO2 is just a plant food.

Another inch of rain since my last post. The weather guessers are describing Sunday's weather as the biggest storm of the winter: possibly another 3 to 8 inches of rain. I'm missing the drought already. If I could talk my wife into it, I would move to an actual desert. Three or four inches of rain a year is enough for me.

I'm not a big fan of extremes in weather. Ironically, the weather is one of the reasons I decided many years ago to stay here.Looking at another two to four inches of rain tonight and tomorrow.Leaking window, standing water in one crawlspace, etc., - this next storm may not be fun.It never rains in Phoenix, does it?

Sadly, yes. We had a guy at work who came down from Seattle. He said he loved the city but hated the weather. First winter he was here, we had a massive storm and he, along with many others, was stranded at the office building due to flooded roads. Had a few guys with high-setting pickups who hauled people out.

When my daughter was in college, we made a few visits to Portland. We fell in love with a section of the city and talked seriously about moving there. It was the rain that kept us from acting on it.

We have gotten another two inches and are still waiting for the brunt of the storm.

There is a paucity of data about the weather history here, but from what I can find, this is the second largest January rainfall recorded. It is at least four times the norm. The snowpack in the Sierras is at 150% of normal, and we have months of precipitation still to come.

I can't tell you how much I fucking hate rain. I will try to never complain about drought again. <Sniff. I miss my drought. Sniff.>

Ever see the movie The Illustrated Man? — a critical failure but I liked it anyway. I can picture _Howard when I remember this part of the film:

Quote :

"The Long Rain" - A group of astronauts are stranded on Venus, where it rains continually and heavily. The travellers make their way across the Venusian landscape to find a "sun dome", a shelter with a large artificial light source. The first sun dome they find has been destroyed by the native Venusians. Searching for another sun dome, the characters, one by one, are driven to madness and suicide by the unrelenting rhythm of the rain. At the end of the story, only one sane astronaut remains to find a functional sun dome.

I've watched The Illustrated Man several times. Very entertaining movie.I remember the story about the rain on Venus: The Long Rain. Of course that book was written before we found out that the surface temperature on Venus is over 800 degrees.